Orioles minor league recap 6/17: Norfolk twirls a Fathers’ Day shutout

Toledo (Detroit) 0, Norfolk Tides 1

Chandler Shepherd hadn’t exactly shined this season before this start: he’s 0-6 with an 8.12 ERA and 0-1, with a 4.30 ERA since he was picked up by the Orioles on May 22nd, but today he was a different pitcher. The righty went 6.2 innings while allowing no runs, two hits and a walk. He struck out five, and his stuff looked like it had nice bite.

As the scoreline might give away, the Tides didn’t do much against Detroit’s No. 24 prospect, lefty Tyler Alexander. In the eighth, they pushed a hard-fought one across against reliever Eduardo Jiménez when Joey Rickard reached on an error, stole second, took third on a Jace Peterson single, and crossed the plate when right fielder Mason Williams singled. Cedric Mullins was 0-for-3, Austin Hays 1-for-4, Mason Williams 2-for-4, and Chris Bostick 1-for-4.

Trenton (Yankees) 4, Bowie Baysox 3

Dean Kremer, the O’s No. 9 prospect and part of last year’s Manny Machado haul, pitched four scoreless, then crash-landed, giving up four runs (three of them on homers) in the fifth and sixth innings. Sounds like he’ll fit right in to the big-league rotation. (Too soon.) Kremer took the loss to go 1-4 with a 5.02 ERA, but it wasn’t a terrible day for him, either, as he also struck out nine and walked none in six innings. Zach Muckenhirn (3.86 ERA) relieved Kremer with two scoreless (though he walked three), and Cristian Alvarado (3.96 ERA) tossed a perfect ninth.

Bowie took a 3-0 lead early on, but couldn’t score after the fourth inning. Yusniel Diaz had a two-run double in the third that scored Preston Palmeiro and Ryan McKenna. In the fourth, Palmeiro singled home catcher Carlos Perez (himself 2-for-4 on the day, .241 BA). Diaz ended up 1-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs to put him at .243 on the season, Ademar Rifaela had 3 hits out of the DH spot, Mason McCoy was 1-for-5 (.318 BA) and Ryan McKenna went 0-for-5 (he’s hitting .214 this season).

Salem (Red Sox) 16, Frederick Keys 2

Frederick had a Sunday to forget, with the rotation taking a shellacking. Cameron Bishop’s ERA jumped up almost a run and a half today to 5.90, which is something that will happen to you when you give up nine runs in two innings of work. Unfortunately, whatever Bishop had seemed to be contagious, as the other Cameron—Ming—gave up four runs over three innings himself, and Matthias Dietz had a horrific sixth, walking four and hitting a guy without getting through a complete inning. Ming’s ERA was a tidy 2.63 as of May 20, but it’s been creeping up since then, and it’s now 4.97. Dietz has struggled since coming up from Delmarva; he’s sitting at 12.15 for the season. Scott Burke relieved Dietz and put a stop to the nonsense, pitching 2.1 scoreless.

The Keys managed nine hits but only two runs, both courtesy of NASCAR scion Zach Jarrett, who hit an RBI groundout in the third and a garbage-time homer to make it 16-2 in the ninth. Other than that, Cole Billingsley had an 0-for-5 day (still sitting pretty with a .322 average), Jomar Reyes went 0-for-4, and catcher Stuart Levy went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

Delmarva Shorebirds 6, Hickory (Rangers) 8

Delmarva, human after all, gave up four runs in the eighth to lose this one to the Crawdads. After ten appearances out of the bullpen, righty Nick Gruener made his first start of the season. It was … okay. Command issues and a pair of doubles hurt Gruener in the second, but he settled down to pitch three scoreless after that. Jhon Peluffo pitched a clean sixth and seventh (0-0, 3.16 ERA) but Matt De La Rosa (3-1, 3.79) couldn’t close things out. He came in during the eighth and after getting a double play, gave up an RBI single, a walk, and a three-run homer to take the loss.

Delmarva did most of their damage in the third on a grand slam by Daniel Fajardo, who came in as a pinch hitter. The CF Nick Horvath had two RBIs on a single and a home run. Seamus Curran, Will Robertson, and Robbie Thorburn each had one hit, a double. No. 13 prospect JC Encarnacion went 0-for-5 to put him at .237 this season.

Aberdeen Ironbirds 4, Brooklyn (Mets) 3

The Ironbirds pulled to 2-1 in their early season, jumping out to an early lead and holding off a Cyclones rally in the eighth and ninth. For Aberdeen, starter Dallas Litscher pitched 5.2 innings of scoreless, two-hit ball where he struck out seven. Good look! Nick Meservey and Andrew Ciolli also had shutout appearances in relief. Felix Bautista coughed up two runs and Marlon Constante one run. None of the runs were earned, so a look at the box score will show you five Ironbirds pitchers with an ERA of 0.00.

The Ironbirds put together ten hits on the day, Ian Evans, Irving Ortega, and Dalton Hoiles (son of Chris!) each chipping in RBI singles. Centerfielder Johnny Rizer added a triple to score Hoiles in the eighth. Rizer tore it up today, going 3-for-5 with a double and a triple.

Complete box scores from Sunday’s set of games can be found here.

Monday’s Scheduled Games

• Aberdeen: at Cyclones (Mets), 7 p.m. Starter: TBD (That’s it!)